After 48 hours of angst, the Lakers felt the warm embrace of the Staples Center faithful Saturday night and their world began spinning in greased grooves again as they seized a 16-point lead against the Denver Nuggets.

Game 7 s have been good to the Lakers on their home court, and it seemed to be heading in that direction again as they sought to put an end to the Nuggets’ season while advancing to meet the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference semifinals.

A funny thing happened on the Lakers’ way to a 96-87 victory and a berth in the next round, however.

They had to dive on the floor and shoulder their way through crowds for rebounds and line up an extra pass to an open teammate to beat the Nuggets.

“That’s who we are,” Lakers coach Mike Brown said.

The Lakers led 62-46 midway through the third quarter, but the Nuggets rallied for a 68-all tie late in the period before trailing 69-68 going into the fourth quarter. It was a neat summary on the best-of-7 series.

The Lakers and Nuggets went back and forth again and again, neither willing to yield an inch lest the other take a mile. The final quarter was textbook basketball in how to play harder and with more resolve than the other guy.

Two lackluster losses wiped out the Lakers once commanding 3-1 series lead and sent their fans into a sour mood leading up to an unexpected winner-take-all game against the underdog Nuggets.

What seemed easy suddenly appeared difficult.

The Lakers finally got the memo and it became a night of comebacks.

Kobe Bryant returned to form after a stomach ailment left him in such a weakened state that he needed four bags of intravenous fluids just to play in the Lakers’ loss in Game 6 at Denver’s Pepsi Center.

He had 17 points and a team-leading eight assists.

“Five championships. It’s not difficult to win games,” Bryant said when asked if it was hard to play with patience against the Nuggets’ double-teaming defense in Game 7. “I didn’t have to show too much restraint.”

Of his health, he added, “I’m getting over it. Looking at you guys doesn’t help.”

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum snapped from Thursday’s funk that instilled the Nuggets with a hope that didn’t exist when the 7-footers led the Lakers to victories in the first two games of the series at Staples Center.

Gasol scored 23 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and added six assists and Bynum added 16 points and a playoff career-high 18 rebounds, putting to rest the notion that they couldn’t lead the Lakers against the Nuggets’ big guys.

Gasol’s tip-in of a Bynum miss gave the Lakers the lead for good at 80-78 midway through the final period. It happened only moments after the game’s defining moment, when Gasol scored at last after six offensive rebounds.

“He kept going and going and going,” Brown said of Gasol.

Said Gasol: “The ball didn’t go in the first time, second time, third time. The ball kept coming back to me. I kept jumping and jumping until I was finally able to put it in. It was good. There was a lot of energy going through my body all night long.”

Metta World Peace returned from a seven-game suspension for elbowing James Harden of the Thunder in the head April 22, supplying the Lakers with the emotional defensive stopper they lacked in the first six games of the series.

World Peace (the former Ron Artest) scored nine of his 15 points in the third quarter, when the Lakers appeared ready to run away from the Nuggets only to be overtaken in the opening minutes of the fourth.

“He made plays that were absolutely freaking amazing,” Brown said.

Or as Bryant said of World Peace, “His energy and intensity were infectious.”

Steve Blake added a playoff career-high 19 points, including a 3-pointer that gave the Lakers an 83-78 lead. Blake made 5 of 6 shots from 3-point range and 7 of 11 overall in 29 minutes, 55 seconds in a reserve role.

Ty Lawson and Al Harrington each scored 24 points for the Nuggets, whose speed and energy the Lakers finally matched in the second half of Game 7. Arron Afflalo, a former UCLA standout, added 15 points.

A sellout crowd of 18,997 found its voice well before the opening tip, roaring as loudly for World Peace as for Bryant during the pregame player introductions. The fans seemed energized by World Peace’s return, and he by their cheers.

Two years ago, he helped to carry the Lakers to their last Game 7 victory, rallying them with 20 points against the Boston Celtics in the decisive game of the 2010 NBA Finals and earning a chapter in the franchise’s lore.

History was on the Lakers’ side as they prepared to face the Nuggets.

Only once in their history, dating to their start in 1949 in Minneapolis, have they lost a Game 7 on their court. The Celtics beat them in the 1969 Finals at the Forum.